Wichita eagle., 1887-07-16
I1NcoLRs DEvo41oN TO THE UNION

= II An eQHOrlal dppe8IcQ LII tue AOuiSNLl
lGourier-J Journal on the above subject ths
is remarkable, coming as it does from
aoutheIn Democratic journal. It has ofte
been claimed that the southern. speopl
: really thought they lost their best frien'
when Mr. Lincoln was assassinated. B.
the majority Of northern people this wa
thought to be sympathetic feeling arouse'
in the south for Mr. Lincoln on account o
his untimely death. In speaking of th'
martyred president the Courier -Journa
says:
''It is more than twenty years since MIR
Lincoln was assassinated, and in his deatf
the people of the south recognized, then a.
now, that In his death the Union lost its
most devoted defender.
The character of Abraham Lincoln can
be studied with equal benefit by the peo
| pie of the north and of the south. Mr..
Grady has well described him as the
typical American, but he is more than this,
for his nature is one that claims universal
kinship. He is "one of Plutarchs men, %
because of his sincerity, his simplicity, his
unselishness, his seriousness. his single
ness of purpose and his deep sympathy for
all men. o. 7
His early life made him acquainted with
the hardships Of life. He knew its trials
and denials; he passed through the furnace
of truggled with des-
pair in all of its forms, and he came
through much tribulation to the leadership
of grea: people.
Lincoln died at the age of 1fty-six,
Thomas Jefferson lived to be eighty-three;
Madison died at eighty-fve; John Quincy
Adams at eighty-one, and John Adams
lived to be ninety one; Jackson was sixty
two when he was elected president. and
lived to seventy eight. Had Lincoln's
span of life eeualed that allotted to any one
of these he would be alive today.
Moreover. 1t is to be considered that Lin
coin reached prominence in politics only
few years before his death. When nomi-
ma ted for president he had no place in ma
tional politics. He was denied the early
advantages enjoyed by those we have
named; Hehewed his way to greatness
Looking back, we see how that struggle
with poverty on the frontier was his school
of preparation, and how it fitted him for
the work before him. His work was not
the emancipation of the slave; it was the
restoration of the union. To him the
union was the ark of the covenant, aud
with it rested all hope for liberty among
men.
Thus after quarter of a century we
find southern men giving their tribute to
the memory of one of the greatest men of
the present century. Mr.. Waterson shows
plainly in this article that he does not con-
slider Lincoln and his works for the union
as belonging to any party but to his ceun-
try. In this be Is quite right, the fame of
Lincoln belongs to the nation, to the south
as well as the north. After showing that
MIR. Lincoln met with strong opposition in
fhe north. Mr.. Waterson goes on to say:
1t is an interesting study to find in all
Lincoln's utterances, even the most casual,
this idea subordinating all others, that
the union must be saved. After
his election to the Presidency one seeks in
vain in all his papers for any self conscious
ness, for any personal ambition, for any
thought of his individual importance. No
attacks upon himself, no condemnation of
his methods provoked him in the least.
There was manifest in the highest sense the
conservation of all his energies. talents and
ambitions to saving the Union. A certain
solemnity pervaded all his public acts or
e expressions, as though he were always con-
scious of the great tragedy of battle, and
had an intimation of where his pathway
would end. He concludes his letter to
Colonel Hodges, in which he reviews each
step he took until he reached emancipa-
tion, with these words
Il claim not to havo controlled events,
but confess plainly that events have con-
trolled me. Now, at the end of three years
struggle, the nations condition is not what
either party or any man desired or expect
ed. God alone can claim it. Whittier it
is tending seems plain. If God now wills
the removal of a great wrong, and wills
also that we of the north, as we'll as you of
the south, shall pay fairly for our compile
lty In that wrong, impartial history will
hnd therein new causes to attest and revere
the justice and goodness of God"
The letter is dated April 4, 1864 Abra-
ham Lincoln stands as the great pacificator,
the restorer of the Union on the founda-
tion of truth and justice
There was iu his heart no room for bit
terness. The work he did was done sin
cerely and with the purpose Of maintain
ing the constitution as he understood it
He rose above the clamors of the party
into the serener atmosphere Of purer par
riotism. None saw it then. Passion on
each side silenced reason, bat passion had
died out. The disunionists Of the north
can no more claim Abraham Lincoln than
can the secessionists of South Carolina but
today, after the sound of battle has died
away and peace is everywhere, those de
voted, as are we all at last, to the perpet- |
uity of the American union, may ponder |
with reverence and with admiration his |
words and his works"
The new time card of the Atchison. |